Chapter 420 Come Out, Siheyuan
Capital city.
A private room in Laifu Hotel.
The reason why Pei's mother asked to hold the wedding in Beijing for her daughter's marriage was not because she wanted to embarrass the man's family, nor because she despised the man's family for being country people. Rather, when a family like their Pei family marries off their daughter, they only invite guests of distinguished status. It was indeed inappropriate to ask them to travel thousands of miles to a country place like Guangxi to attend the wedding.
The main reason is that the distance is so far, and a round trip plus attending the wedding will take at least three days. This is based on the assumption that the round-trip flight time is suitable. If the round-trip flight time does not match, I am afraid that the time will have to be extended.
How could your leader be so free as to spend so much time attending your wedding?
But if the wedding is held in the capital, it will be different. You only need to spare two or three hours to attend the wedding. In this way, as long as the relationship is good, I believe the guests invited by the Pei family will give face and attend.
After making this request, Pei's father and mother looked at Deng Shirong, mainly because they were afraid that he would be unhappy.
After all, customs and habits vary from place to place. Although Pei's mother did not think that her request was excessive, she also had to consider the man's wishes. If the man was willing, then everyone would be happy. If he was not willing, then so be it, and don't force it.
At worst, when my daughter gets married, my family can just go to her wedding.
It is only in this era that Pei's mother would be so concerned about where to hold the wedding. Like many couples in later generations, they would generally hold two or even three weddings, one at the man's family and one at the woman's family, and then one at the workplace, inviting different guests to each wedding.
The advantage of doing this is naturally that it is convenient for most guests, allowing them to attend the wedding nearby without having to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to attend the wedding.
The bad thing is that it is too tiring. After three weddings, the bride and groom are exhausted.
Deng Shirong originally thought that the girl's parents would make some difficult requests, but this is it? He immediately responded without hesitation: "No problem, let them hold the wedding in Beijing!"
Pei's father and mother both smiled when they saw this. It seemed that their future in-laws were quite reasonable and did not bring up customs and habits as an excuse.
After Deng Shirong agreed, he continued to ask: "Relatives, do you have any requirements for the betrothal gift?"
Mother Pei smiled and said, "As for the betrothal gift, we don't have any requirements. Our family has everything. Just follow the conventional etiquette."
Deng Shirong nodded, and then said: "Since we are going to hold the wedding in Beijing, I have to find someone to renovate the house in Beijing, which will take a lot of time. It is almost August now. If we choose to get married this year, the time will be too tight. I suggest setting the wedding date for next year. What do you think, relatives?"
Mother Pei was surprised when she heard this and said, "Relative, do you still have a house in the capital?"
When these words were spoken, not only the Pei family was curious, but even Deng Yunsong was curious. He really didn't know that his family also had a house in the capital.
Deng Shirong smiled and said, "Yes, I bought a house in Beijing a few years ago. When I finish renovating the house, I will leave it to Xiaosong and Xiaopei."
Pei's mother and Pei's father looked at each other. Originally, the couple had already discussed that if the boy's parents agreed to hold the wedding in the capital, then the wedding would be held in their old Pei house. They would then invite a chef to cook a few dishes and invite a few tables of important guests.
But unexpectedly, the man's family also had a house in the capital, so it would be difficult to hold the wedding at the Pei family's old house.
Although their old house of the Pei family is a quadrangle with two entrances and a relatively large area, it is quite suitable for holding a wedding, but they also have to consider the face of the man's family. Since ancient times, unless the marriage is to marry into the wife's family, the banquet is mainly held by the man's family. Naturally, they cannot ignore this rule by relying on their better family background than the man's family.
If there is really no other option, let's hold my daughter's wedding in a hotel!
While thinking this in her heart, Mother Pei said, "Dearest, since you have a house in the capital, you will be the host of the wedding."
Deng Shirong smiled and said, "We can discuss these slowly later. Relatives, feel free to give us any suggestions you have. Anyway, our goal is the same, and we all hope to hold a good wedding for the young couple."
Pei's father and mother felt very comfortable after hearing this. The other party's attitude was indeed impeccable.
After discussion, Deng Yunsong and Pei Qinghua's wedding date is tentatively scheduled for May next year, and the specific auspicious day will be chosen by a master.
After an auspicious date is decided, both parties will discuss the dinner party.
After the meal, both sides had almost finished their discussion.
Deng Shirong asked his son to pay the bill, and he handed the cigarettes, alcohol, tea, and three kinds of canned food he made to Pei's father and mother, and said with a smile: "Dear relatives, these cigarettes, alcohol, tea are all specialties of our Bobai County, and these canned food are all made by me. You can take them back and try them to see how they taste."
Pei's father and mother declined several times before accepting the things.
After some more pleasantries, the two families left.
The Lai Fu Hotel is not far from the staff quarters where the Pei family lives, and it only takes a few minutes to walk there.
After the three members of the Pei family took the gifts home, Pei's mother couldn't help but say, "It seems that we have underestimated Xiaosong's father before."
Father Pei continued, "That vision and insight are indeed not ordinary!"
Mother Pei looked at her daughter and said, "Qinghua, has Xiaosong ever told you what his father does?"
Pei Qinghua shook his head and said, "I only know that Uncle Deng is in business, but I haven't asked what kind of business he is in."
Mother Pei glanced at her and said, "Why don't you ask?"
Pei Qinghua blinked her eyes: "What's so good about asking this? Anyway, it's enough to know that Uncle Deng is in business and his family is not short of money. Why ask so many details? Yunsong and I have been together for so long, and we have even decided to be together, but he has never asked what you do.
If you hadn't invited him to your home for dinner, he wouldn't even know that my dad is the head of this place!"
"It seems that our Qinghua wants to be a woman of the new era, a representative of free love!"
Father Pei made a joke at first, and then praised: "But it's also good to have pure feelings."
…
On the other side, Deng Yunsong asked, "Dad, when did you buy a house in Beijing?"
Deng Shirong smiled and said, "I bought it when your second brother was studying in Beijing. At that time, the house price was not expensive, and I didn't know whether your second brother would live in Beijing in the future. I bought it when I found a suitable house. Now you are using it, aren't you?"
Deng Yunsong's eyes widened as he said, "Dad, you are really good at hiding things. We've bought the house for so many years, and you actually managed to hold back and never tell us."
Deng Shirong said: "You and your second brother have been allocated houses by your work units after you started working. Since you can't use this house, there's no point in telling you."
Deng Yunsong nodded and said, "That's true. Dad, what kind of house did you buy?"
Deng Shirong smiled and said, "We are buying a courtyard house. How about I take you to have a look first? This house will be yours in the future. You can discuss with Qinghua what you want to decorate it like, and then I will hire someone to decorate it."
Deng Yunsong was surprised and asked, "Siheyuan? How many entrances does it have?"
Deng Shirong said: "The third one."
"A courtyard with three entrances?"
Deng Yunsong was really surprised when he heard this. Although in this era, the comfort of the siheyuan is no match for the buildings allocated by their unit, the siheyuan also has its advantages, especially this kind of siheyuan with three entrances, which has a very large area.
In ancient times, those who could live in a courtyard house with three entrances were considered wealthy and powerful.
I didn't expect that my father had bought a three-courtyard courtyard house in Beijing many years ago. He really had a long-term vision.
Seeing his son's surprised expression, Deng Shirong smiled and said, "It's just a courtyard house with three entrances. It wasn't worth much when I bought it. But as the country develops, houses will definitely become more and more valuable. After all, this is the capital. This courtyard house may be worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in the future."
"Worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions?"
Deng Yunsong gasped. He was shocked by his father's judgment.
In this day and age, even the most visionary people would never dare to make such an outrageous judgment. If a courtyard house with three entrances is worth tens of millions or even hundreds of millions, then how developed would our country be?
Thinking of the growing international influence of his motherland before his rebirth, Deng Shirong smiled and said, "I am just making a bold guess. This is based on the rise of our motherland. As long as our country can become strong again, the value of this house will naturally rise."
“It would be great if I could really see that day!”
"We will definitely see it. For thousands of years of history, our Chinese nation has stood at the top of the world for most of the time. The time we were at the bottom was only short-lived. I believe we will be able to rise again soon."
…
The Siheyuan is a traditional courtyard-style building unique to my country, with a history of more than 3,000 years.
A complete quadrangle courtyard consists of three courtyards. The first courtyard is the narrow courtyard in front of the hanging flower gate where the back house is located. The second courtyard is composed of wing rooms, the main house, and a corridor. Ear rooms can be added next to the main house and the wing rooms. The third room is the back room behind the main house. A door is opened in the ear room on the east side of the main house, connecting the second and third courtyards.
In the entire courtyard, the elderly live in the north room (upper room), the middle is the large living room (central hall), the eldest son lives in the east wing, the second son lives in the west wing, the servants live in the back room, and the daughters live in the backyard, and they do not affect each other.
Deng Yunsong followed his father into the house and saw the screen wall in front of them.
The screen wall has the function of blocking the view of outsiders. Even if the door is open, outsiders cannot see into the house. It can also set the atmosphere and increase the momentum of the house.
The screen wall in the shape of a straight line inside the gate of the house is called a straight line screen wall. Some are independent of the gables or partition walls of the wing rooms, which are called independent screen walls. Some are made by directly building a small wall cap on the gable of the wing rooms and making a screen wall switch, which are called sitting mountain screen walls.
"Opposite the house" says "is an eight-shaped screen wall made of polished bricks with parallel seams", which refers to an eight-shaped screen wall opposite the house gate, called a goose-wing screen wall.
Its main function is to tell others: My family is rich, we are willful and willful! The screen wall in front of Deng Shirong and his son is the goose-wing screen wall.
Deng Yunsong studied in Beijing for four years and stayed here to work for another year. He was naturally familiar with siheyuans, but the siheyuans he had seen before were either super siheyuans like the Forbidden City, or super luxurious siheyuans like the royal palaces, or siheyuans with only one entrance.
This kind of complete three-courtyard courtyard was the first time Deng Yunsong had seen one.
After taking a look at this awesome goose-wing screen wall, the father and son walked towards the hanging flower gate, which is a gate between the first and second courtyards, and also the most beautiful and impressive gate in the entire courtyard.
In the Four Great Classical Novels, A Dream of Red Mansions, it is described as follows when Lin Daiyu first entered the Jia Mansion: "The maids followed her down to a gate with hanging flowers, and the servants withdrew. The maids came up to open the curtain of the sedan chair and helped Daiyu down. Lin Daiyu held the maid's hand and entered the gate with hanging flowers. There were corridors on both sides and a hall in the middle. There was a large marble screen with a rosewood frame."
Due to its structural reasons, the two front eaves columns of the Chuihua Gate can be suspended in the air instead of touching the ground. The two inverted capitals are carved into shapes of lotus petals, beads or pomegranate heads, resembling a pair of buds about to bloom. This pair of short columns is called "hanging lotus columns", and the Chuihua Gate got its name from this.
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Most of the hanging flower gates adopt the "one hall and one roll" style roof, that is, the outer part of the gate is a gable roof with a clear water ridge, and the inner part of the gate is a roll roof, and the two are connected and overlapped. The space under the roof is like a small house, with doors in the front and back, and corridors on the left and right.
A hanging flower gate condenses almost all the elements of Chinese architecture.
"It's so beautiful!" Deng Yunsong exclaimed in admiration.
The hanging flower gate is the door facing the courtyard. It usually has four leaves, which are usually closed and painted green. These are the four green screens. The "second gate" here refers to the hanging flower gate. In the past, it was said that young ladies from wealthy families "never go out of the main gate or the second gate", which means that they never go out of the hanging flower gate.
After passing the Chuihua Gate, you will reach the second courtyard. In rainy or snowy weather or when there are no important events, there is no need to open the Chuihua Gate. To enter the main courtyard, you must pass through the corridor. This circle of corridors runs along the outer perimeter of the inner courtyard, connecting the Chuihua Gate with the east and west wing rooms and leading directly to the main room. It is named because its shape resembles the shape of a person's hands.
In addition to the main courtyards of the inner and outer houses, the Siheyuan also has some small courtyards, such as the small courtyards in front of the side rooms on both sides of the main house, and the small courtyards separated by screen doors on both sides of the outer courtyard. There is a corridor in the shape of a cross from north to south in the courtyard of the inner house. In the past, most residents would plant trees in the courtyard. Except for pine trees, cypress trees and poplar trees, which cannot be planted because they are in cemeteries, all other trees are planted.
In the past, there was a folk saying in the capital: "Mulberry, pine, cypress, pear and locust trees are not allowed in the palaces of kings and emperors", which refers to the taboo of planting trees in the courtyard.
The more common trees are jujube trees and persimmon trees, and the main flowers and trees are peony, peony, magnolia, lilac, crabapple, wisteria, pomegranate, etc. Jujube trees and pomegranate trees represent early birth of a son and many children and grandchildren, persimmon trees represent everything going well, and planting lilac and crabapple means that the owner has status and a certain cultural accomplishment.
After touring the entire courtyard, Deng Yunsong said with emotion: "It is indeed the residence of a wealthy family. It is really magnificent."
Deng Shirong said: "It is not very convenient to live in this courtyard now. I plan to hire someone to equip it with modern equipment as much as possible without changing the architectural layout and style. At least the necessary things such as floor heating, running water, toilets, lighting, etc. should be solved, so that it will be comfortable to live in.
There are also places that need repairing, so you can discuss it with Xiao Pei later and bring forward any ideas you have."
Deng Yunsong shook his head and said, "Dad, you have considered it very carefully."
…
After deciding to renovate the courtyard houses, Deng Shirong contacted a skilled decoration team through the relationship with Director Huang of the Nanning Architectural Design Institute and asked them to repair and decorate the seven courtyard houses in Beijing according to his requirements.
Yes, since we are going to renovate it, we naturally cannot just renovate one courtyard house, so we might as well renovate all seven courtyard houses.
Because my third son will use this courtyard house for his wedding, I renovated this one first.
After explaining everything clearly, Deng Shirong said hello to his third son and boarded the K3 international train, which later became infamous.
The K3 train was the first foreign-related train to run after the founding of my country. It started running in 1960, departing from Beijing, passing through Mongolia, and finally arriving at its destination, Moscow. The entire train is 7,826 kilometers long and takes 130 hours and 41 minutes to run. It is the longest train in my country and is known as the "No. 1 Train in China."
The reason why this train became notorious in later generations is that in May 1993, a major case that shocked China and the world occurred on this train. The passengers on the train were robbed by three gangs of robbers in turn, and many women were raped, many people were beaten and stabbed, and some were even killed.
In fact, before this incident happened, various robberies and other incidents had occurred from time to time, and this train already had a bad reputation.
Many Chinese passengers traveling between Beijing and Moscow locked the doors of their private rooms with iron chains, and ate, drank, defecated, urinated and slept inside, not daring to open the doors for six days and six nights.
Although this train is extremely dangerous, countless traders still take it to Moscow. It is really very profitable to resell goods between the two places in this era. The high returns make those traders willing to take all risks.
At this time, Big Brother was on the verge of collapse, and many traders were traveling back and forth between the two places to trade supplies.
The train was filled with goods carried by traffickers, and there were very few passengers like Deng Shirong who only carried a suitcase.
After Deng Shirong got on the bus, he began to think about what he could plunder during this trip to Moscow to make a fortune without leaving any trace. After thinking for a while, Deng Shirong decided on some targets, namely gold, jewelry, US dollars, oil, grain, fine wine, poultry, livestock, edible oil, aquatic products, steel, cement, rare earths, etc.
These are things that are difficult to trace, so he can safely put them into the space. As long as the quantity is large enough, they will naturally be a huge fortune.
There are also industrial equipment, which can also be charged in small amounts.
Thinking of this, Deng Shirong had an idea in his mind. He could then act according to the situation and specifically plunder the state-owned assets and the assets of high-ranking officials, while leaving the assets of ordinary people and small businessmen alone.
…
The journey was safe and sound, and Deng Shirong arrived in Moscow safely six days later.
In the next month and a half, Deng Shirong transformed himself into the most powerful thief in the world, constantly reaping Big Brother's wealth.
He did not collect wealth randomly, but first collected those wealth that were hidden and difficult to be discovered, such as gold, jewelry, and valuables such as US dollars stored in vaults and safes. Even if these things were lost, they would not be discovered for a long time unless someone happened to open them and look.
There are also grain, fine wine, cooking oil, steel, cement, rare earths, etc. stored in warehouses.
These things will only be discovered when they are needed.
After all these treasures have been collected, they will start collecting those things that are easy to be found.
At this point, a month had already passed, and as these easily found treasures were collected, great unrest soon occurred, making the already turbulent Big Brother even worse.
Just when Moscow began to "earthquake", Deng Shirong had already boarded the return train with satisfaction.
This trip to Moscow was really rewarding and I achieved my goal of getting rich quickly.
Not to mention anything else, Deng Shirong got more than 50 tons of gold alone, and several tons of other jewelry. He didn't know how much it was worth, but it was more than 10 million US dollars, more than 10,000 tons of oil, more than 1 million tons of steel, and more than 800,000 tons of cement.
There are other things as well, and the amounts collected are also extremely astonishing.
In short, if the wealth harvested this time is converted into RMB, it will definitely be an astronomical figure.
Of course, Deng Shirong will definitely not use this windfall in the short term.
Although there were no surveillance videos in this era, and his methods were mysterious and unpredictable, no one could catch him, but if he was in a hurry to sell these things, he would definitely get into trouble, after all, the noise would be too loud.
However, as long as the timeline is extended and some supplies are sold quietly, it can be done without anyone noticing.
After returning to the capital, Deng Shirong first went to see the renovation of the courtyard house and found that the progress was very encouraging. He estimated that in about a month, the renovation of his third son's courtyard house would be completed.
As for the renovation of other courtyard houses, there is no rush at all. After all, it is impossible for the other children to live in Beijing in the short term, and they will just be left vacant after renovation.
Having not contacted his children for such a long time, Deng Shirong called them one by one in order not to make them worry.
The other children were all fine, but when he spoke to his youngest daughter, he received some unexpected news.
Deng Yunzhu said, "Dad, Uncle Zhou wants to come visit you and discuss Zhou Haidong and my marriage with you."
Deng Shirong asked: "Azhu, you have been dating Haidong for a while, how do you feel about it?"
Deng Yunzhu said: "It seems to be okay at the moment."
Deng Shirong said: "Okay, I understand. I'll talk to you when I get back to Nanning."
…
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